Previously on The Changlings... It turns out that rescue from the lab gang wasn't enough for Meeko's redeemption. All three of the kids, newly evolved and savage-like, made it crystal clear that they didn't want Meeko to acompany them the rest of the way home. Betrayal cuts one deep, maybe a bit too literally in this chapter...
Currently Injuried: Meeko, suffering from major shock treatment and... eh, you get it.
Author's Note: Reading the poorly written and constructed riddle, and the cliche riddled 'prophecy' made me flinch. XP I'd get rid of the first in this draft in a heartbeat if I could, and rename the second or SOMETHING. Oh, the terrors of old work. Go take a peak at your oldest work and have yourself a chuckle. As I was writing a certain flashbackish section in the chapter, I realized how fun it would have been to write it out as actual parts of past chapters. Oh well...
Chapter Twenty Five: Portal Opened
We didn't stay a trio for long. Meeko trailed along at a safe distance behind us, his gait the submissive shuffle of a wounded puppy. Joe's rejection stung him greater than he'd imagined, and couldn't help feeling like he was on the receiving end of betrayal's arrow. He'd always liked the way Joe was innocent enough both physically and mentally to push aside any obvious faults of his. Evolution changed all that, changed all three of the animals he'd called friends.
The boy was as persistent to stay around as we were to stay away. Numerous times Jill would strike him with her vines if he got too close, and I'd have pitched in a bit by shocking him had he just not been electrocuted. Yeah, we were pissed at Meeko, but not to the point of murdering the kid.
Nearing the incinerated tower, I teetered on the peak of doubt. The confidence I had in the threshold moments before capture had strangely vanished. Was this the right place? What would be our next step if it wasn't? One sleepless night of listening to the Voice is more than enough for one to ponder suicidal thoughts. I didn't think I could last another hour in this stronger body, much less a few weeks searching for additional options.
There was no longer a door to greet us at the entrance, most debris that blocked it pushed aside to satisfy many a trainer's curiosity. The acrid smell of soot pounced at our noses, reeking decay from the crumbling walls. There were bits of a second floor present but no roof, a blessing to explorers who didn't appeal much to the idea of sudden cave ins. A sign warned that we were entering at our own risk, and Ecruteak wasn't liable for any injuries inflicted inside or around the building. It sounded to me like this was a popular thrill ride.
We walked in gingerly, enjoying the fragile touch of ash underfoot. The floor, unnaturally paved by the layers of stories that were flatted atop it, stood several feet higher than the ground outside. No trainers lurked at the uneventful section harboring the entrance. In the center of the building's base were the blackened remains of a wooden pillar, a mighty spit of charcoal against mellow gray. Even in death it bore the title of leadership.
I looked up at the second floor through the gaping hole in the center of the ceiling and spotted the missing humans. Personally, I couldn't see why anyone else would actually explore this limited building, much less find any healthy pokémon living inside it.
A sound and movement to our left, gentle to the ears and subtle to the eyes, told me that a small portion of the ceiling was crumbling. None of us were close enough to worry, so I gave no warning of it. The soot sprinkled down from the building's new wound like camouflaged flakes of dandruff. Less than a second later the floor above gave way silently, raining dead wood, ash, and the shocked form of a trainer. He fell as soundless as the ceiling had, too amazed to cry out, and crashed clean through the floor we rested on, continuing down to the unknown caverns below the building. The only other witness to the human himself had been Meeko, Jill and Joe's senses not keen enough to allow them the full cycle of the event.
Joe titled his head sideways in confusion. "Wha-"
"A human. These floors break." I said, turning away from the hole. He had the wit and the strength enough, so let him play Survivor for a change! He could be dead for all I care!
The word a turn off for both of them, they wilted their concern. Meeko didn't bother protesting against our coldness.
"Where are we going?" Jill didn't care for subtlety on this issue. Her plants, slightly dehydrated before entering, itched in anger at the dry air. "I doubt the legendaries are waiting for us up there."
"If we go up there," I replied in a bitter voice, and pointed to the hole. "We end up down there."
"You didn't answer my question."
"Ask me if I give a rat's ass, Jill."
"Fine! Tell me, do you give a rat's ass whether or not this is the right place!?"
"Just shut /up/! I don't have all the answers for you, so stop asking me."
"Who said I ever asked you?"
Joe stamped his foot for attention, his snarling voice overpowering ours. "Will you both stop being so damn difficult?" He yelled angrily. "I know it's hard to be nice now, but don't start fighting when we're so close. You keep this up and you'll turn into... into Marc."
"She started it." And from Jill's abashed words did the altercation die.
There wasn't much to see on the first floor for our wanderings across it to be considered 'searching'. It reminded me of the pointless way one loitered in front of the fridge, unable to decide whether they were hungry enough to deal with the guilt of excessive eating. We huddled as a group in one corner, scanning the room for anything suspicious. Meeko was preoccupied by the pillar's skeleton, smearing his hands black in a fruitless attempt to dust the soot off.
"What are we looking for? I really think we should go upstairs." Jill commented, straining to keep her voice pleasant.
"No, that's not the place..." Joe murmured a worried protest. "Too many trainers go up there. We're looking for something that's hidden where no one would think to look."
"How do you know?" I asked.
"Well... I don't. I'm just trying to think like a legendary."
"Hey! I think I found something!" Meeko called us over to the pillar, our curiosity temporarily bypassing our grudge.
He'd wiped certain spots of the pillar clean of soot, so that its skin matched the rest of the tones of the building. On the clean spots were four, half dollar sized indentations, preserved by a powerful force strong enough to repel flames. Above it were the words 'riddle, please', created by the soot caught in rifts the letters made. I couldn't imagine spotting that myself. //Ever//.
"How did you-? Never mind." Jill waved a vine dismissively and looked up at the command. "What riddle's it talking about?"
"I...don't remember." I admitted, shrugging. "But it's on the tip of my tongue. I swear I know what it's asking..."
A riddle? Sounded just like any other annoying obstacle we innocent protagonists had to conquer. Meeko waited patiently for a reaction to the discovery and, seeing none, thought it safe to add his own comment.
"What about the dream? The one that Jade had."
"Huh?" It was hard to recall dreams I hadn't written on paper. I wordlessly prodded for more.
"Um... Oh! It was right before the center caught fire, and after you saved your friend from getting poisoned to death. You said the mutant legendary back at the forest was in it."
That last bit broke the dam of stubborn forgetfulness. A lot much had happened since then, and I'd started to forget all about it ((if you're like Jade, look at the beginning of chpt. 9)). In it Cel had given me a riddle, and showed me visions from the past and the future (the last of this telling me Damion would kill Meeko and Joe). I obviously couldn't remember the riddle word for word now though, and kicked myself for not making an effort to memorize it.
"Try touching it." Meeko suggested, earning himself a classic 'what do you know?' glare. He continued with a rough edge in his voice, clearly getting sick of this unfair mistreatment. "See what it says? 'Riddle, please'. It looks more like a button one of you guys should press, not an instruction."
Under normal circumstances that would be the last option I'd take just out of pure hard-headedness, but this was the recovery of our bodies, here! Joe did the honors of pushing the proclaimed button, proud to show off his dominant height. The lost voice of Cel slithered into the sound barrier like the lonely whisper of a wondering spirit:
//"I had a feeling you would forget this riddle, Jade. You thought the tragic future was more important than the present."//
"Yeah, yeah, get on with it!"
"Shut up, Jade!"
//"-ere it is. 'The gentle whisper of a mother that soothes the land to sleep. A place where great colonies are born, and everyone is a brother. One shy of difference, land of beige rolling mounds. When the sky's blanket is the Earth's, sending shafts of chills.' There was also the scripture you read in the Ruins of Alph, which said '...it is these four keys that will open the door, the four keys that will release the gift and give back to those that have lost. The un-wholes need only the riddle's answer to find the keys and make themselves whole once again. A once loyal friend will turn on his master, and more than one heart will be flayed.' Keep this in mind when you all proceed, and there is a chance you may escape this black future yet."
"Brilliant. Just what we need!" Jill hissed in dismay. She had no idea what the riddle could mean, and even if we solved it, there was still the matter of finding these keys. The dirtiest of curses were armed at her lips and ready to assault the air.
"No, no. We just need to think. We might have them already" Joe pointed out, trying to remember the riddle. This would be a challenge for him, since he found it easier to solve problems when it was presented in writing. He also found it easier when a disembodied voice wasn't muttering in the back of his head.
Each of us fell silent in our pondering of the beginning of the riddle; it was the only part we committed to memory. I shook my head sideways to rid myself of the noise, as if the chattering voice was merely a trickle of water stuck in my ears. The mad voice-entity only grew louder.
//I know the secret of the universe. Want to listen in? In the end we all die. There is no Heaven and Hell. Our worlds lacks the fingerprints of God. Sooner or later it will collapse into nothingness. You're doomed to-//
"I can't think right now, Joe." I spoke in a voice barely beneath the volume of a shout.
"Try."
"No!" Hardly fazed, he stared down at my defiance. A mild look of brutality lingered on his face, brought out only by the savage body change. "I mean, it's easy for you to say. I bet you can't even hear your Voice."
"You just keep thinking that, then." He replied, and flashed a sad smile. Seeing the puzzle pieces of needle fangs hidden behind it ruined the effect.
Suddenly, a clone of Cel's voice bubbled into our developing conversation. "//The gentle whisper of a mother that soothes the land to sleep.//"
Meeko, who had reached out to stroke the first indentation on the wall, pulled back sharply. He only heard the sharp whisper of Cel's tongue, and wasn't sure if the subtle button he'd pressed would blow the tower to bits or some other crisis.
"That makes our life easier. Try the next one." Jill suggested, automatically discarding the first part. Joe did as he was told.
"//A place where great colonies are born, and everyone is a brother.//"
//That doesn't make sense.// I thought, irritated. //How can you make a colony of people if they all have the same mom?//
I voiced this to Joe and Jill, while Meeko stood left out behind us.
"Maybe its talking about a kingdom. You know, kings and queens ruling over 'their people' and stuff." Joe said, but judging by his unconfident tone even he knew that was a stretch. Beside, how could you fit anything kingdom related into that small an indent?
"I don't think it's talking about people. Humans don't do that kind of thing." Jill pointed out, eyes scanning the soot floor for answers. "Sounds animal to me. Like, ants."
"And bees." Joe added in. She was on to something, here... "But what do we put in it? Nothing like those can fit in there in this universe."
"It's not talking about the thing. It wants the place. So we have an anthill and a bee hive. A hill and a hive." I nodded briskly, grating my teeth in frustration. "Anyone got a spare hive we can stuff into the wall? No? Gee, that's a bummer. ... What are you doing, Joe?"
He was on his knees in front of Meeko, scribbling out our brainstorm to him. Among the mess he'd written out and circled 'hive' and 'hill' with a large question mark adjourning both. Ignorant to the riddle, the human could only rely on the fragmented notes of the boy kneeling in front of him. Meeko looked up at the four holes, puzzled. I showed him an impatient example by grabbing a handful of ash and throwing it against a hole, followed by a gentle rap on the door.
"...what? You need a hive to open the door?" He asked, genuinely confused. All three of us let out a short moan.
"I thought maybe he could help us." Joe shrugged, turning away from his failure.
"You just keep thinking that, then." I told him in a mocking voice. Wow, why did I have such a sour attitude?
Although none of us paid attention to him, the said failure had pulled the collar of his shirt out, as if something interesting had fallen down there. By the look of enlightenment on his face he might have discovered the cure for cancer. "I think I know what it's talking about! Hang on a second."
"Meeko, I pretty sure-" Before I could finish a smart ass remark involving certain body parts beneath his shirt, he'd torn the source of his excitement loose for us to see. In his hand was the Hive badge, strands of his shirt dangling down from the pin they were entangled in. He strode over to the indents, plucking away the remains of the clothing. When he brought the badge up close to the hole, it appeared to be a perfect fit. Joe crowed his delight.
"That's the answer! Hive! And the other ones..."
"Zephyr, plain, and fog." I finished, pushing the back of Meeko's ankle in a wordless, encouraging prod. All three of us overlooked the fact that he had yet to win the fog badge, ignorant to his trade with Griffin.
"Meeko pulled out his latest edition, the fog badge, and pushed it into the fourth hole. At first it seemed the badge wouldn't take and simply fall to the ground, but moments after contact a force from behind the wall sucked it backwards out of sight. Meeko gave a comical yelp of dismay at the same instant we did of joy.
"You have to be //kidding// me!" He yelled, more out of his soon-to-be loss for the first three badges. Being rid of his ill gotten bartering reward was a relief- to lose the ones he'd actually earned made his stomach coil.
It didn't matter if he wanted to give the badges. Those pins were going inside the pillar, their owner awake and aware or not.
Fortunately for the drugged teenager, his debate over the price of our bodies was a short one. He moaned in his head as each badge was absorbed into the magically enhanced wood.
//"Thanks for the sacrifice, human. The portal can be used now."//
Cel's gratitude was the warning of what was to come. There came a draft along the back of my neck, strong enough to drag the unprotected yellow hairs with its current. I vaguely recalled something similar happening like this before, and found myself expecting the floor beneath us to collapse. Close, but not quite.
There was suddenly this awful feeling radiating from the pillar. It came in the ebb and flow of waves. From that moment on all trainers who entered would subconsciously steer away from the tower's mascot. Nothing noticeable to the eye had changed about the pillar's remains, but we could all sense it. It was like standing over the edge of an abyss, or looking up at the sky from a high, narrow perch. Danger, possibly even death, lay waiting beyond this invisible portal. And it reeled us in.
All four of us felt its pull and resisted it instinctively. There was nothing painful or mentally taxing about it, more like a fishhook caught in some secret place in our chests. I was the first to succumb, such pitiful weight my own worst enemy, and was jerked forward into the pillar with a startled gasp. Seeing this, Jill launched herself in after me, calling my name in a terrified wail. Joe didn't trust himself to try turning around, yet attempted it anyway. When his left side faced the pillar it sucked him in, his scream cut off at the invisible portal's touch. Meeko believed that this was the place that would transport him to our universe, and became frantic in his struggle. Such movements made his vulnerability worse, aggravating his drugged up senses and forcing the backpack from his shoulders. He felt himself begin to leave.
"No, I'm not supposed to go. Please, please, I'm human, don't-"
The tug became a gale, dragging in boy, soot, and footprints he and his trio had left behind.
oo00oo
"No, I'm not supposed to go. Please, please, I'm human, don't-"
The teenager watched Meeko phase into the pillar, stoic in face and reeling senselessly in his mind. His old rival winked out of existence, swallowed up by nothing in the guise of a burned pillar. The only item left was his backpack. Adrian himself hadn't seen anything as unbelievable before. Painful yes, but never a sight that could question his sanity. Or stir up so much curiosity.
He timidly stepped into the tower, fingers on what he guessed was Blaze's pokéball. Due to certain peculiar circumstances, he didn't exactly feel safe in the presence of Waterburn just yet, and relied on the weaker of the two for protection should he require it.
After his degrading exit from Ilex forest, had Adrian returned to the field where Waterburn had evolved in hopes of training the beast against the tricky arts of psychic and dark pokémon. Upon release of his pokémon, he'd soon realized that something had gone awry. Whatever that umbreon did to Waterburn had turned him feral, far beyond Adrian's liking. There was also another unsettling factor: less than twenty-four hours after his first evolution, he'd evolved again. It took at least several months for a croconaw to become a feraligator, so this alone tempted Adrian to recall him.
Despite his wariness, Adrian had attempted to go about with his training. He'd ushered Waterburn to his side, and the creature'd obeyed a tad too literally. The animal had bowled him over, overpowering Adrian for five terrifying seconds before he'd managed to return his unpredictable weapon into its ball. Adrian knew he'd turned out lucky as he inspected the injuries along his upper frame.
Adrian had a particularly nasty slash under his left eye, the only wound that was still causing him the most pain and worry. He could picture how it occurred based on its shape: the last of Waterburn's five, widely spaced claws caught in the lobe of his ear, tore it, continued along his face, and ended at the nostril, also torn. Then he'd been able to recall him. It had already clotted and healed over in the form of a thin scab.
Refusing to seek medical help for wounds the body could heal just fine, Adrian had ventured and conquered Ilex forest. His stay in the city, similar to Meeko's, had been brief. He only met trouble at the entrance to the route, where a pair of guards had claimed the road to Ecruteak was unsafe and therefore blocked off to all travelers. They would wake up hours later tossed into the forest a few yards from their post, licking burn wounds they'd never recalled obtaining.
Towards the last half mile Adrian learned of the illegal chain of events lurking about in the road, and that they involved his rival. He'd encountered a man handcuffed to a tree, and thought it sensible to get some information from him. The handcuffs were unique, and provided the teenager with a rather painful lie detector. If he thought what the man spouted was false, he would aggravate the pressure nodes.
The man had said he was an important employee from the lab in New Bark Town, and offered proof of such claims when Adrian asked. Adrian had explained to him that he was the pokémon thief several days ago, and demanded he get full pardon for the theft if he could bring back some important footage Meeko had stolen in his escape. Eluding the authorities was amazingly simple, but tiring.
He never ended up releasing the man upon his hasty leave.
The only obstacle separating him from a cleaner police record was his fear of the hurricane force radiating from Burned Tower's pillar. Where ever Meeko had been whisked away to, the boy didn't seem quite pleased about it. Adrian was willing to trust the victim's instincts prior to his sudden disappearance and decided that going near the pillar was a very, very bad idea.
Unlike his smarter counterpart, Adrian had no backpack with which to store any type of rope. The only item he had that could be used as a home made noose was his belt, currently occupied by a half dozen shrunken pokéballs . He unhooked it and slowly pulled the belt from his pants, cupping his free hand below the pokéballs that broke away from the Velcro attachments as he tugged. He'd got to the fourth pokéball when a section of his palm accidentally activated the size adjustor of one of them. As a result of the overwhelming size change several others were pressed, and in Adrian's mounting frustration he dropped them to gather in a chaotic mess.
The net ball, Waterburn's prison, had been one of the pokéballs enlarged to its true size, and in its momentum of being dropped began rolling towards the pillar. Adrian didn't act for a few seconds more, unsure if the ball was being influenced by the pillar's current. When it showed no signs of slowing down Adrian lunged forward to retrieve it, crawling on his knees. He didn't particularly care if his pokémon was lost to the portal, but some wickedly greedy part of him drove the outlaw out to save it. Maybe he could sell it to a poor sap back in Goldenrod, or maybe-
Whatever Adrian had planned to do with Waterburn would never reach beyond the confides of his thievish mind, because at the moment his fingers clasped over the ball he unintentionally pressed the release button. It split in two with a burst of white, scorning what ever grasp Adrian had thought secure. Waterburn came into being, casting a shadow that stretched all the way across to the wall opposite the pillar. He hissed thickly at the vulnerable human, his gray eyes terrifyingly intelligent. Adrian looked up at Waterburn, seeing all the abuse he'd inflicted upon the creature reflected in them. On his knees, feeling the throb of a pulse in his throat, master attempted to tame slave.
"Waterburn. I want you to get the backpack behind you."
Waterburn parted his jaws so he could taste the boy's fear, and turned a brutish head over his shoulder to look at said backpack. He would have laughed and spat insults at the red head if he could only recall how.
"Do you see it, Waterburn? I want you to get it for me." The human spoke slow enough for Waterburn to translate the message. He knew their tongue well, somehow, and could pick at every bit of emotion buried beneath the words. There was fear, delicious and sour, as well as unconfident authority.
Waterburn turned back to Adrian, who in his fear had made no attempt to leave the spot. Waterburn felt no intimidation towards this pale, fangless beast, even though his past screamed for him to have it. He hissed again, relishing in the maddening waves of flavor the human gave off when he did so.
"Get me the backpack, Waterburn! I mean it!" He snarled a little too fast for Waterburn to understand it word for word, but his panicked anger was enough for the pokémon to understand the command. Waterburn, curious to see the secrets inside the backpack, dragged his feet backwards to get it. His eyes never left Adrian's, sardonic, daring, unfeeling. The only time his concentration on his prey lapsed was when he'd reached his arm back to grope for the backpack. A strong wind he hadn't felt before tugged his arm backwards rather painfully, jarring into the pack. Instinctively his claws dug into it, and with some effort he pulled the ugly thing away from the current.
Seeing this done, Adrian scrambled to his feet and dove himself at the feraligator, emitting a battle cry in his hysterical fury. Quick as a cobra (arbok, his head corrected), Waterburn threw the backpack to the side and thrust his claws into the oncoming attacker. They found purchase in both Adrian's shoulder's, which summoned a surprisingly small amount of blood at first. His battle cry evolved into the thin wail of gravely stricken prey, but still the human pushed towards Waterburn. The creature hadn't expected this, and was pushed back several steps in his surprise. The current got a steady hold, tearing Waterburn's claws loose with a torrent of blood and a scream that alerted the trainers in the upper floor. He was pulled back into the portal, helpless, eyes rolling in their beast-like rage at the indignity of being tricked by a human fit to be called a hatchling. Adrian, his scream dying with the lack of breath, managed to stagger backwards so as to not get sucked in with his rebellious pokémon. He crossed his arms over his chest to press against the double injuries, bent over because the pain was pushing him to the ground. The blood seeped through his fingers and dribbled down to soak into the grime of soot. Waterburn disappeared into the portal mid snarl, just as the trainers reached the foot of the stairs. The first of them, spotting Adrian collapse to his knees and then flat on his face, swore loudly.
"Well, quit gawkin' laddie!" An older man pushed her forward and rushed to Adrian's side. Amazingly, the boy was still conscious, warmed by the coat of blood pooling beneath him. He saw it seeping near Adrian's neck and thought the worst.
"My backpack. And pokémon." The outlaw rasped weakly, face twisted in an agonized grimace. He shouldn't have tried moving his arms...
"Yes, yes, son, we'll make sure to get them. What attacked you? Stay awake now."
Adrian forced his lids to part, earning him a wave of vertigo to go along with the pain. The world from his eyes looked like it had been dunked in a bottle of navy ink, and began streaming out of sight right before his eyes. He looked up at the pillar, and was relieved at what he saw: nothing.
"It's gone now." He answered, and didn't even feel the side of his face lightly collide with the floor.